As the Monty Python song goes “I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK, I sleep all night and I work all day”. Lumberjacks are North American workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era (before 1945 in the United States) when hand tools were used in harvesting trees.1 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumberjack
The term lumberjack is of Canadian derivation. The first attested use of the word comes from an 1831 letter to the Cobourg Star and General Advertiser in the following passage: “my misfortunes have been brought upon me chiefly by an incorrigible, though perhaps useful, race of mortals called LUMBERJACKS, whom, however, I would name the Cossack's of Upper Canada, who, having been reared among the oaks and pines of the wild forest, have never been subjected to the salutary restraint of laws.”2 2Ibid.
Today, a more common term for a lumberjack is “logger”. Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Modern technology changed the job of the modern logger considerably. Although the basic task of harvesting trees is still the same, the machinery and tasks are no longer the same. Many of the old job specialties on logging crews are now obsolete.
Chainsaws, harvesters, and feller bunchers are now used to cut or fell trees. The tree is turned into logs by removing the limbs (delimbing) and cutting it into logs of optimal length (bucking). The felled tree or logs are moved from the stump to the landing. Ground vehicles such as a skidder or forwarder can pull, carry, or shovel the logs. Cable systems “cars” can pull logs to the landing. Logs can also be flown to the landing by helicopter. Logs are commonly transported to the sawmill using trucks. Harvesting methods may include clear cutting or selective cutting. Concerns over the environmental impact have led to controversy about modern logging practices. In certain areas of forest loggers re-plant their crop for future generations.
A recent Wall Street Journal survey on the best jobs in the United States ended by listing being a logger as the “worst” citing “work instability, poor income and pure danger”. A Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of America's most dangerous jobs put loggers at the top of the list for 2004.
In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used narrowly to describe the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. In common usage, however, the term may cover a range of forestry or silviculture activities.
Clearcut logging is not necessarily considered a type of logging but a harvesting or silviculture method, and is simply called clearcutting or block cutting. In the forest products industry logging companies may be referred to as logging contractors, with the smaller, non-union crews referred to as “gyppo loggers.”
Cutting trees with the highest value and leaving those with lower value, often diseased or malformed trees, is referred to as high grading. It is sometimes called selective logging, and confused with selection cutting, the practice of managing stands by harvesting a proportion of trees.
Logging and log processing can be carried out by different methods, of which the following three are considered industrial methods:
Tree-Length Logging/Stem Only Harvesting (SOH)
Trees are felled and then delimbed and topped at the stump. The log is then transported to the landing, where it is bucked and loaded on a truck. This leaves the slash (and the nutrients it contains) in the cut area, where it must be further treated if wild land fires are of concern.
Whole-Tree Logging (WTL)
Trees and plants are felled and transported to the roadside with top and limbs intact. There have been advancements to the process which now allows a logger or harvester to cut the tree down, top, and delimb a tree in the same process. This ability is due to the advancement in the style felling head that can be used. The trees are then delimbed, topped, and bucked at the landing. This method requires that slash be treated at the landing. In areas with access to cogeneration facilities, the slash can be chipped and used for the production of electricity or heat. Full-tree harvesting also refers to utilization of the entire tree including branches and tops. This technique removes both nutrients and soil cover from the site and so can be harmful to the long term health of the area if no further action is taken, however, depending on the species, many of the limbs are often broken off in handling so the end result may not be as different from tree-length logging as it might seem.
Cut-to-Length Logging
Cut-to-length logging is the process of felling, delimbing, bucking, and sorting (pulpwood, sawlog, etc.) at the stump area, leaving limbs and tops in the forest. Harvesters fell the tree, delimb, and buck it, and place the resulting logs in bunks to be brought to the landing by a skidder or forwarder. This method is routinely available for trees up to 900 mm (35 in) in diameter. Harvesters are employed effectively in level to moderately steep terrain. Harvesters are highly computerized to optimize cutting length, control harvesting area by GPS, and use price lists for each specific log to archive most economical results during harvesting.
In cut-to-length logging, one of the first jobs that a new logger is entrusted with is bucking logs into their proper lengths. While one may conclude that cutting logs to particular lengths is an straight forward job, there are actually many complications associated with the process. If all logs were the same, healthy and uniform, it would simplify the job. However, in the real-world, each tree is different and can pose issues for even for a seasoned logger. As such, a bucker needs to pay close attention to the different characteristics of a tree, they need to have a knowledge of grade in a log as well as how to cut a log to maximize the amount of board footage that can be gleaned from that tree.3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logging
Many techniques are used to determine the length of a log cut and loggers tend to have their own techniques. There are a couple of measuring tools and techniques that are more common than others. Some loggers will use a stick of a specific length, and then starting from the butt of the tree, the bucker will lay the stick against the tree trunk, then flip the stick end over end to measure the next length. This process is continued until the desired length is reached and then the tree is cut at that point. Thus, is a four foot stick is used, the bucker can easily measure out lengths in increments of four feet. In addition, a mark can be placed in the middle of the stick to provide two foot measurements.
Other techniques utilize logger's tape measure. Another technique is to drive stakes in the ground at the desired length.
It should be appreciated that in addition to finding great trees, the profitability of a logging business is also based on the efficiency with which the logger is able to process the trees into logs for being shipped to the sawmill. The above-described techniques for measuring for bucking can be inefficient and limiting. This is especially realized by the fact that some trees have diseased areas, crotches, etc. that may limit the length of the log that can be bucked from the tree. Thus, there is a need in the art for a system and method to buck trees that increases the efficiency of the process, achieves the longest cuts as possible and also provides the flexibility for making shorter cuts as dictated by the nuances of the tree.